Fuel tipped to pass $1 mark

WALLET-wounded drivers have been advised to take their foot off the accelerator and put it on political throats as unleaded petrol prices are likely to break through the $1-alitre pain barrier on the Sunshine Coast this week.

Fuel monitoring service FUELtrac said the major fuel companies were going to persist with a year-long policy of taking higher profits.

Yesterday at Yandina, unleaded petrol was sitting at 99.9 cents a litre.

At Maroochydore in the morning, the price hovered between 95.7 cents a litre and 96.9 after a high on Saturday of 98.9.

According to FUELtrac spokesman Geoff Trotter, the average going price around south-east Queensland was 99.9 cents a litre and, with wholesale petrol rises still working their way through the system, this was likely to increase.

World oil prices surged to new record high levels close to $US45 a barrel on Friday over concerns that Russian oil exports would be disrupted, before closing just under $US44.

I see no reason why the oil companies will not take this opportunity to push the price through the dollar a litre mark, Mr Trotter said.

According to FUELtrac monitoring, an average increase of 17.1 cents a litre price rise has occurred on the Sunshine Coast since last October.

MR Trotter said oil companies on the current high of the price cycle were making 17 to 19 cents profit per litre of fuel.

He said the Federal Government was taking 37 cents in excise off the average price in south-east Queensland as well as the percentage tax increases through GST.

While FUELtrac said the Government should be reviewing petrol pricing and look at Australian Competition and Consumer Commission intervention, the RACQ said an end to the discounting cycles could possibly wipe out independent retailers.

Fuel retailer Ron Chambers, who ownS Neumann Petroleum on Sugar Road, Maroochydore, said it was inevitable that petrol prices would break the $1 barrier.

Given the wholesale price increases, it should have gone up past a dollar last week, Mr Chambers said. But nobody wants to do it.

He said the wholesale cost of petrol had increased seven to eights cents in recent weeks and there were more increases on the way.

The only slight respite is that the Australian dollar rose a cent on Friday night.

But Mr Chambers said those retailers who make an average two-and-a half cents a litre on unleaded fuel were unlikely to hold out beyond this week.

He said one strategy to keep it under $1 might be to scrap the normal 10 cents a litre price swing for a smaller swing.

But that means instead of paying in the high 80s in the low cycle people would be paying in the mid-90s.

FOR tips on how to save petrol, see the recently released RACQ booklet, Facts on Improving Fuel Economy which has practical tips like smoother acceleration. The RACQ Maroochydore branch can be contacted on 5443 6922.